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Yoshihiro Honkasumi Deba 21cm

The story started few years back, when I had a brief contact with deba. I dont even recall producer but it felt sooo cool.

Then for some time the subject died, even though sometimes I nearly cried when had to fillet some redfish or salmon with that flexi shite or chefs knife.

Situation changed now, when I started in company with great focus on quality, me myself are not really fond of way modern cuisine goes, I like the respect you can show the produce by taking the best out of it. Plus its quite possible I will be getting more into sushi.
Plus of course amount of fresh fish available in Norway.

Thats how I started to look around, didnt wanted to spend fortune, as usual, but wanted decent quality, I rather pay 50 extra and have less to straighten :

And so after a talk to "the Jon", i bought 21o mm deba from yoshihiro.

What was I expecting? More problems actually.
What I wanted is straightness and even grind. And I cannot complain really.

Blade

Straightness 4/5

Blades overally straight with just minor turning in the tang area.

Grind 4/5

Minor problems. Nothing that wouldnt get fixed with time.
As usually i Started on my DMT. It always shows truth...
The tip is too deeply ground off for my liking, the heel is too low hanging, there was also the overgrinds in the heel area of both iron and steel. [still visible]

The other side is even with no bumps on the edge visible or any cavities, which could be encountered in Mizuno for example.
Only small problem is the tip area, and Im not sure whether this is normal on new blade, or just a error. The tip bends to the steel side. Or was
Because of that I had to grind little more of metal there just to allow the rest of bevel to get in contact with stone.

It is still there, I will fix that over time.

Sharpness 0/5

I just mention that for those who would expect knife for that money to come any sharp.
In my standard there was no edge on it completely, plus the primary bevel was at a pretty steep angle, changed already, in preparations for hamaguri.

Sharpening 5/5
Short, wide and heavy blade. Dream to sharpen, and a fast one.
As I said, straightening of the secondary bevel took some time with DMT, but polishing and sharpening went quite fast. I didnt pay too much attention to the kasumi though. Why? Cause I know I will play with the blade for next few months.

Now, Im not going to tell you how sharp this knife can get, or how sharp it got.
Im not a fan of those silly-arse tests with tomatoes or paper.

But the sharpness is quite nice after naturals.

I havent got a chance to check the edge holding ability, but its looking good so far.

Reactivity 5/5

Which basically means, very good.
I usually dont use a knife the same day I was sharpening, but even when I did, it didnt developed any patina after some fish prep.
Also, after leaving for a while on wet stone, just tiny bits of discoloration showed up. And a few.

Blades fit and finish 3/5

Didnt expected more from it. It is OK with some brushing marks here and there. Spine rounded enough. Choil Area nice and clean, little to crispy, but at least polished.
The front seems little rough.

Handle 2/5
This department doesnt matter nuttin to me, but I have to mention
Maybe at Yoshihiro are thinking its good enough to give you piece of wood? And yes, I know you can get same in more expensive knives, but the horn have some overgrinds, is significantly smaller than wood. The wood as usual.
Hole in the handle looks like the blade was alive when they mounted it in.

So overally 4/5
I think its worth all the money I paid for it for the amount of knife you get.
And big thanks to JKI for being patient and pushing Yoshihiro into me. I was little affraid of it but I was totally wrong.

And now the fun part. Experiments with wood this time...What happens when you vacuum knife in saya in linseed oil on highest program? Then bake in 50 for 100 minutes? And then dry in 50.

Nice, I love the cryovac'ed knife! Lets see some pics of the fish after you finished with the deba!

I have a couple yoshihiros, not from Jon though, and I like them quite a bit. I believe mine are blue steel though. I would get more yoshihiros because I find it such good value, but I want to try out other makers to get a feel for everything.